EU rejects Italian demand to impose Covid curbs on arrivals from China
The EU has rejected an Italian demand to reimpose travel restrictions on arrivals from China, as capitals across the world take divergent approaches to surging numbers of coronavirus infections in the country.
EU officials at a meeting on Thursday did not endorse a call from Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, for the bloc to collectively follow Rome’s move to test all air arrivals from China in response to Beijing’s abrupt decision to lift all its zero-Covid policies and let the virus rage.
Meloni warned Brussels that Italy’s mandatory testing, announced on Wednesday, would be “ineffective if it is not followed at a European level”. She added: “We wish Europe would move in this direction.”
Norway and Finland were not considering imposing any conditions on arrivals from China because there is already a significant amount of Covid infections in the countries and few travellers from the Asian nation at this time of year, health authorities said.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Henry Foy
